Preceded by-Junkopia (Chris Marker, 1981): Pop art and junk sculpture on the Emeryville mudflats. (6 mins, No dialogue, Color, 35mm, Print from PFA Collection) (Die Faelschung). Volker Schlöndorff affects concentric circles of deceit and analysis in this adaptation of a novel (Die Faelschung or The Forgery) by Nicolas Born, a poet-novelist who was appalled by the cold sensationalism of Western media's treatment of the civil war in Lebanon and its very human tragedies. Bruno Ganz portrays a German journalist on assignment in Beirut, dealing on one level with a disintegrating marriage and on another with the disintegrating reality that surrounds him. An affair with a German woman (Hanna Schygulla) who is immersed in Arab life, and the ascerbic observations of his photojournalist companion (played by the Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski) only confound his comprehension of such images as children playing on a beach riddled with human skulls. Shot on location, with actual fighting going on nearby (and extras who reportedly refused to exchange their live ammunition for blanks), Circle of Deceit is one of the most provocative films in the debate concerning the use of exotic, troubled locales to provide authenticity. The deceits of cinema come full circle in the painterly cinematography by Igor Luther, who has made this unending battle visually beautiful and therefore compelling. The war must go on. The show is hell.